The end of July/beginning of August has been very busy, but at the same time a lot of fun. Marshall and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary on July 28th. We decided to switch off years for planning our anniversary and this year it was my turn. I met Marshall at work and surprised him with dinner at The Roof restaurant at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (where we had our reception), then we stayed downtown at the Marriott at City Creek, which is where we stayed on our wedding night. Since our anniversary was on a Sunday, we ended up going to church downtown and walked around for a while. It was just a short "stay-cation" but we both really enjoyed getting away for the night. The only pictures we have were taken with my phone, so it's not the greatest quality, but we had the most amazing view at dinner, so I wanted to share just a few.
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Marshall's birthday is coming up this week, and I came up with a present that I don't think I will ever be able to top. Recently, I have been doing family history for Marshall's side of the family, instead of just my side. I really enjoy finding out about Marshall's paternal side of the family because there is so much LDS Pioneer history. Marshall's great-great-grandfather (Joseph Bates Noble) was very close with the 1st President of our church, Joseph Smith. He was with him on the way to Carthage Jail in Nauvoo. On the way there, Joseph Smith gave "Bates" his Nauvoo Legion Sword and gave him very specific instructions to hide the sword away and hand it down from father to son until a descendant felt prompted to bring it forth. The sword was handed down in the Noble family and not seen by anyone else for 165 years. In 2009, Howard Carlos Smith (a very distant relative of Marshall's) wrote a book about the sword and began showing the sword at conferences. I saw all of this online, and was able to find an email where I could reach the author. I wasn't sure that anything would come of it, but I emailed him asking if there was anyway I could surprise my husband by showing him the sword. A few days later, I received an email from Howard's wonderful wife, Jolene. She said that they don't typically show the sword unless at conferences for security purposes, but they were willing to work with me. Amazingly, they invited us to their home in Idaho to see the sword.
So this past Friday, I picked Marshall up from work and told him we were going to Idaho. He did not believe me until we were still in the car an hour later. I can't believe I was able to keep this a secret! I didn't tell Marshall why we were in Idaho until we were checking out of the hotel to go see the sword. When we got to Howard and Jolene's home, they surprised us even more by going so far above and beyond showing us the sword! We ended up spending three and a half hours with them learning about Marshall's great-great-grandfather.
The blade of the sword is made of steel, with a double-edged tip. The hilt is made of silver (which has turned black with age) and the handle is wrapped in leather (also blackened with age). Howard and his cousin Lamar (the current keeper of the sword) had a special case built to protect the sword and scabbard. The scabbard is made of bronze, which has also blackened with age.
When Joseph Smith was killed at Carthage Jail, his and Hyrum Smith's bodies were carried out in oak caskets, then transferred into walnut caskets to be buried. Emma saved the lid of the oak casket that Joseph was in and had it broken into 12 pieces (called casket sticks). She gave these casket sticks to people that were closest with the Prophet, including the 8 men who carried the caskets out of Carthage Jail. Joseph Bates Noble was one of these men, so along with the sword and scabbard, the casket stick is in the display case as well.
Along with the sword and casket stick, the Nobel family has handed down Joseph Bates Noble's family Bible. This Bible has not yet been shown to the public, but Howard and Jolene were so generous in showing the Bible to us. Howard explained to us that in the time when Joseph Smith died, it was custom to remove locks of hair from the deceased, tie them and give them to those closest with the person that passed on. When Emma Smith gave Bates the casket stick, she also gave him Joseph and Hyrum Smith's locks of hair. Bates put the locks of hair in his family Bible, on page 111, where they have since stayed. Marshall and I were completely blown away that right in front of us, sitting on a table was their locks of hair. Both of us admitted later that we were a little afraid to breathe, in case it moved the hair (that is how close we were). Howard is currently having a case built for the Bible and the hair to display when he shows the sword.
Joseph Smith's hair is the one on the left with the loop, and Hyrum's is on the right. Howard was very specific in pointing out how light their hair was compared to all of the pictures we see of them. He also pointed out the differences between how Joseph and Hyrum's hair was tied by their wives.
There is a section in the family Bible for pictures of people the family was close with. The pictures in here are all originals. We thought it was so cool that there are pictures of Orson Pratt and John Taylor.
There is another part of the Bible that had room to write family births and deaths. The beautifully written cursive belongs to Joseph Bates Noble's wife, Loretta Sylvia Mecham. The entry that says Jos.Parley Noble is Marshall's great-grandfather.
Howard and Jolene were also kind enough to have Joseph Bates Noble's rifle at their home for us to see. My favorite part of this whole experience was seeing Marshall holding the gun that belonged to his ancestor. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience for us.
You can even still see the ball that Joseph Bates Noble put in the gun still stuck in the barrel.
There were also all of the papers from Loretta Sylvia Meecham's funeral that we were able to hold and read.
Here are some of the close ups of the special case Howard had made. The case maker had an old leather gun holster from the 1800's that he cut up and placed behind each item to protect it against the wood. He also used leather shoe laces to secure the items and a leather belt on the back of the stand for support, which were both also from the 1800's.
This is a picture of Howard and Jolene with Marshall. We still can't get over how generous they were.
This was definitely one of the most amazing experiences Marshall and I have ever had!
After spending the morning learning about Joseph Bates Noble, we drove back down to Salt Lake, where I surprised Marshall again by taking him to the Salt Lake Cemetery to visit Joseph Bates Noble's grave.
We then met up with the Hutching's family for dinner at Settabello's, then games at their house. What an amazing day! Happy Birthday Marshall!
